Friends, Lovers, and Various Permutations Thereof
by Tillikins
Summary: Celebrating the end of NEWTs! Sirius asks Remus to room with him after school.


At long last, exams were over. The Gryffindor common room was littered with butterbeer bottles and other various party paraphernalia. It was nearing midnight. James slid into his usual seat by the fire.  
  
"Lily's dancing on the table," he said in an awestruck, slightly strangled voice.  
  
"We've all been pushed too far," Remus said, looking up from his own bottle. "I suppose she's letting off the tension."  
  
"I guess on days like this you know who your friends are," chuckled Sirius. Everyone in the common room was staring at Lily, and some were catcalling and throwing money. Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, however, were mostly concentrating on getting very, very drunk. Mostly, because Prongs was staring at Lily with a mixture of interest and disbelief, and Wormtail had passed out hours ago on the hearth rug, which was par for the course.  
  
"Speaking of friends, you want to go in on a flat with me, Moony?" Sirius asked. "Uncle Alphard left me a bit of gold, but I can't afford it on my own."  
  
"In London?" Remus asked, interested.  
  
"Of course, in London. I couldn't sing you that song you hate if we didn't live in London, could I? Oi!" Remus had pelted a pillow at him. "Well, are you in?"  
  
Remus smiled wryly. "I'm in, but only because no one else could tolerate living with you. Well, maybe James could, but I suspect he and Lily will be shacking up."  
  
James was oblivious to the conversation, however. He was staring, open- mouthed, at the flame-haired girl unbuttoning her blouse as she danced on the table.  
  
Glancing at Lily, Remus sighed and stood. "Come on, Lil, that's enough," he said as Lily started to undo the last button on her blouse. He was met with several boos from the crowd, but ignored them as Lily stepped down. She scooped up her sweater, along with the money people had thrown at her, and let Remus lead her off to bed.  
  
As they mounted the steps, Lily laughed.  
  
"I suppose you thought doing a striptease for the whole of the Gryffindor common room was terribly funny?" Remus asked as they walked up the spiral stair.  
  
"No. James owes me twenty Galleons," she slurred, looking very pleased with herself. "I was right."  
  
"About what?" Remus stopped halfway up the stair, puzzled.  
  
"That you're gay!" Lily collapsed in a fit of giggles.  
  
"How many butterbeers did you have, Lily?" Remus asked in a calm tone that belied his internal shock. He'd only recently admitted his sexual preference to himself, hadn't told a soul. How would Lily know?  
  
"Mmmmmm... I don't know... I think I lost count at eight."  
  
"You're drunk."  
  
"You're gay."  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
"James tried to walk me to my room once, and the stairs turned into a slide and he went all the way down. It's happened with other boys, too. But not for you," she laughed. "Because you can be trusted not to do something you shouldn't with a schoolgirl."  
  
Remus was thunderstruck.  
  
Lily laughed again. "I wonder why the boys' stair doesn't turn into a slide for you?" She laughed so hard, tears were streaming down her face.  
  
"Are you guys okay?" Sirius said, coming to a halt behind them on the stair.  
  
Lily laughed even harder. "And now James owes me a hundred and twenty Galleons!"  
  
Puzzled, Sirius looked to Remus, who could feel the blush creeping across his face as he realized that the stair had stayed put for Sirius as well.  
  
"Just help me get her into bed," Remus mumbled. "Quick. She's pissed and raving."  
  
They each grabbed an arm and hauled Lily into her room, held her hair out of her face as she vomited, and helped her out of her clothes and into her pyjamas.  
  
"Scourgify," Sirius muttered, pointing his wand at the puddle of sick on the floor, and it disappeared. Remus pulled the coverlet over Lily's shoulders and she started to snore. They hurried out of the room and back down the stair.  
  
When they reached the common room, James was already gone, apparently having dragged Peter up the stairs to bed. Remus and Sirius looked at one another and shrugged. They would have left him on the hearth rug. They mounted the stair to the boys' dormitory and climbed to the round room at the top of the tower.  
  
Remus turned his back to the room and hurriedly changed into his pyjamas. He could see Peter passed out, still fully clothed, atop the coverlet on the bed next to Remus's own. He didn't dare look at the bed on the other side of his, however. He said a quick "Good night" to his roommates and nearly jumped into bed, twitching the scarlet velvet curtains tightly closed.  
  
His heart was racing. Sirius was gay? The object of his affection, the boy-- nearly a man, now--he had lusted after all this time was really gay? How had he not noticed? He felt himself getting aroused as the now nearly endless possibilities raced through his mind. He slipped a hand inside his waistband to ease the tension, and whimpered as cool flesh met hot, wishing and imagining it was Sirius's hand stroking him instead of his own. He tried to bite back a moan as he finished, and stared into the blackness above him. He tried to go to sleep, but his imagination got away from him and all he could see behind his eyelids were eyes like pale sapphires set in a dusky face, framed with long black hair.  
  
==============  
  
As they entered the seventh years' dormitory, Sirius saw James's eyes lock onto him. Sirius eyed him askance, and shrugged. Remus was lost in a flurry of robes and pyjamas, and as soon as he twitched the curtains shut, James looked pointedly at Sirius and jerked his thumb toward the door, indicating he wanted to talk. Sirius nodded and followed him out.  
  
"What's with you and Remus?" James asked as soon as the door was closed. To anyone else , it would have been a casual question, but the way James stood with his hands in his pockets was a dead giveaway to Sirius that the question wasn't as casual as he would have hoped.  
  
"What do you mean, what's with me and Remus? Nothing different than usual, I assure you," Sirius said. And more's the pity, he added silently. "But what's with you and Evans? She was foxed, and when Remus and I were getting her to her room, she said you owed her a hundred and twenty Galleons."  
  
James blanched. "The stairs didn't turn into a slide?"  
  
"Of course it didn't. Prongs, what are you talking about?"  
  
"It was a bet..." James gave a strange sort of smile that Sirius was sure wasn't because he was pleased about something.  
  
"What on God's green earth possessed you to bet her that much money?"  
  
"Evans bet me ten Galleons Remus was gay. I told her twenty. And she bet me a hundred that you were." Sirius was dumbfounded, and James continued. "Why didn't you guys tell me sooner? It's not like I would have stopped being your friend or anything. I mean, it's kinda weird, but not so weird I couldn't get used to it..."  
  
Sirius was still trying to make sense of this revelation. Remus was gay? Wait, what about that slide?  
  
"Remus is gay? Wait, what was it you said about the stairs turning into a slide?"  
  
"I tried to walk Lil to her room one night, but the stair turned into a slide and I ended up on my arse at the bottom of the stair." He shook his head. "But you and Remus marched right up there, and nothing happened."  
  
Sirius was exceptionally bright, but for some reason, this particular bit of information just wasn't sinking in: Remus was gay? Remus, who he had wanted for years, was gay? This is the best day of my life, Sirius thought as he finally absorbed it.  
  
"I'm going to bed, Prongs. By the way, Lily vomited on me. Remind her of it in the morning, and tell her to watch how many drinks she's had next time we're celebrating something." And with that, Sirius opened the door, just in time to hear Remus's stifled moan. His breathing hitched as he thought of what Remus was doing behind the scarlet drapes, and he tried to put it out of his mind as he took off his robes.  
  
James slipped in a moment later, not bothering with changing his clothes before dropping into bed. Sirius waited until he could hear James's deep, even breathing before he got up and twitched the curtains around James's and Peter's beds closed. He sat on the edge of his bed, facing Remus's closed drapes.  
  
"Remus?" he asked quietly. "Are you asleep?"  
  
"Yes," Remus said, though he clearly was not.  
  
"That's what I thought." There was a long pause. "Will you open your curtains and talk a minute?"  
  
There was a rustle of linen--and was that a cleaning charm he was muttering?--as Remus sat up and opened the curtains on the side facing Sirius.  
  
"What do you want to talk about?" Remus asked. His hair was mussed, and his pyjama shirt was open to reveal his bare chest, which was lightly covered with golden brown hair. He was the sexiest thing Sirius had ever seen. Sirius felt his mouth go dry, and he swallowed audibly. Remus stared at him and licked his lips.  
  
A thousand words played through Sirius's mind as he struggled to find the exact words to say. There was nothing for it, though. Sirius felt his body take over, and he closed the distance between his tawny-haired friend and joined their mouths.  
  
================  
  
Remus lay in the black silence, wishing he would stop thinking of Sirius and himself in compromising positions and be able to just sleep. It seemed like an eternity had gone by, and Remus was considering heading to the Prefect's bathroom for another good wank in the privacy it afforded when--  
  
"Remus? Are you asleep?"  
  
"Yes." Trying to sleep, anyway, and it's entirely your fault I'm not succeeding.  
  
"That's what I thought." There was a long pause. "Will you open your curtains and talk a minute?"  
  
Remus realized that his bed smelled like sweat and semen, and he muttered a quick spell to clean it up and get rid of the offending smell before opening the curtains. "What do you want to talk about?"  
  
Sirius was a vision. He sat on the edge of his bed in a pair of silk lounge pants, his long hair hanging like a black waterfall about his shoulders and halfway down his back. Remus felt himself harden at the sight, and decided he probably should head to the Prefect's bathroom very soon, but before he had the chance, Sirius was on his bed, his hands gripping Remus's upper arms, his full lips pressed hot against Remus's own.  
  
To say he was shocked would be quite the understatement. Remus stiffened for a moment, his eyes wide with disbelief. He was afraid to move, afraid Sirius would stop kissing him. Afraid he would wake to find it had been a dream. He pushed the fear from his mind with a moan when Sirius nipped his lower lip. He had definitely felt the teeth. He closed his eyes and slid his hands up Sirius's sides and around to his back under the fall of raven hair.  
  
Sirius broke the kiss and Remus whimpered, his eyes still shut, leaning in to kiss Sirius more.  
  
"How long, Moony?" Sirius asked. Remus didn't have to ask what he meant.  
  
"Since fifth year. But I was afraid." Remus buried his face in Sirius's hair. "I almost told you sixth year, but then you pulled that stunt with Snape, and I was so furious with you. What about you?"  
  
"I don't know... I know I was miserable when you weren't talking to me over Snape. I figured it out not too long after that," Sirius said, barely above a whisper.  
  
Remus tipped his head up to look into Sirius's pale blue eyes. "Will you kiss me again?" His ears felt hot, and he knew he was blushing. The look Sirius gave him in return was hungry, and he came down on Remus's lips with his own once more. Remus forgot all about the Prefect's bathroom.  
  
=================  
  
James woke early the next morning, much earlier than he would have liked, to muffled sounds coming from Remus's bed. Sirius's was untouched, the curtains still open. James decided he didn't want to know. He grabbed his Nimbus 1500 and headed out.  
  
=================  
  
Sirius and Remus lay, arms twined about one another, talking.  
  
"You'll still be my flatmate, won't you?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Don't be daft, Padfoot." Remus nipped at Sirius's fingers playfully. "Of course I will. There's even more reason to, now I know you don't just want me there to pay half the rent."  
  
"You'll still pay half the rent, though, won't you? Oi!" Remus laughed and hit him with a pillow. Friends, lovers or whatever they were, Sirius would never change.  
  
fin  
  
Author's Note: This fic evolved from listening to Tori Amos's "Taxi Ride", which I took a few lines from. Lots of fluff. :)  
  
I crave feedback! Please, please, please. This is only the second slashfic I've written, and I'd like to know how it's being received.  
  
This story is archived at Dark Side of the Moon, Puppy Love, FF.net. Anywhere else, just ask. :D  
  
The characters are Rowling's, not mine (darnit!). I have no money, so please don't sue. 


End file.
